Twenty years ago, a second telephone line was primarily used as an alternate means of accessing a remote network or computer without tying-up the primary phone line. Since then the telecommunications industry has experienced a phenomenal growth in demand for additional telephone lines and in the way we communicate and process information. For example, during the fax revolution of the mid-1980's, homes and businesses alike discovered a need for having ready access to multiple facsimile machines in order to keep pace with the ever increasing work-at-home lifestyle and the 24×7 accessibility requirements of the busy executive. Just about every business, poised for the new business environment, used fax technology to transport documents and relay data. As a consequence, the demand for POTS or plain old telephone services skyrocketed to new heights. In fact, it was not uncommon for business correspondences to designate primary and secondary facsimile telephone numbers as alternative means of accessing businesses and individuals alike.
In similar fashion, the Internet explosion of the 1990's significantly increased the already burgeoning demand for additional phone lines. In particular, demand for additional subscriber loops as reflected in digital subscriber line service (“DSL”), for example, outpaced most forecasts. The speed of Internet access offered by DSL, was simply unrivaled by the traditional DDD line. In its fastest incarnation, DSL offers more than 100 times the network performance of a traditional modem. While the precise speed of a connection depends on the variety of xDSL deployed, even a basic ADSL setup outperforms the traditional modem by a factor of 20 or more. Internet access such as DSL service provides broadband access over existing copper telephone wires—those same wires that have been used for voice grade service and which have been in demand for fax service and traditional computer access.
However, because internet access relies on the use of a subscriber loop, such services are not always available to everyone. To be eligible for DSL service, for example, the phone line or the subscriber loop must first be “qualified.” More specifically, the home or business must be located within the distance limitations of the DSL service. Generally this means that the distance of the subscriber loop may be no longer than approximately 18,000 feet (3.4 miles) from the central office or public exchange to the subscriber location. Moreover, the subscriber loop must possess certain electrical transmission characteristics which will assure reliability and quality of service.
Once installed, DSL service, like all other services, is subject to service disruptions. The subscriber loop may be subject to thermal noise, crosstalk, and attenuation. To correct or re-qualify the service, the phone company or service provider is often forced to send field personnel to isolate the problem. However, such service calls are often unwarranted since the cause of the service disruption is often not within the subscriber loop or within the control of the service provider, but rather within the wiring at the subscriber premise. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system that would mitigate the need for sending field personnel to investigate every subscriber-loop-based service outage and that would provide automatic and immediate data necessary for isolating and restoring service.